Baz Tab Says ......

جزئيات بهلاکت رسیدن یازده سپاهی در نزدیکی زاهدان

بازتاب: "یک خوردو نيروی زمیني سپاه كه غروب پنجشنبه به محل استقرار خود بازمي‌گشت، با كمين اشرار روبه‌رو مي‌شود. اشرار كه در منطقه كورين در پشت كوه‌ها مخفي شده‌ بودند، با شليك يك موشك آر.پي.جي به تويوتا لندكروز حامل نيروهاي زميني سپاه، تمامي هشت سرنشين آن را به شهادت رساندند.پس از اين حادثه كه حوالي ساعت 19:30 پنجشنبه رخ داد، خودرو ديگري براي كمك به اين نيروها به اين منطقه آمد كه اين خودرو تويوتا نيز هدف اشرار قرار گرفت و تعدادي از سرنشينان آن به شهادت رسيده يا زخمي شدند كه در اين مقطع، شمار زيادي از نيروهاي كمكي وارد معركه شده و به درگيري و تعقيب اشرار پرداختند.اين درگيري پس از آن رخ داد كه هفته گذشته نيروهاي سلحشور سپاه، يك بمب كار گذاشته شده توسط تروريست‌ها را خنثي كردند و يك مظنون به كار گذاشتن آن، بازداشت شده بود.در اين حال، يك منبع آگاه در زاهدان گفت: هنوز هويت گروه اشرار حمله‌كننده معلوم نيست، اما به احتمال زياد اين گروه از اشرار محلي هستند و گروه جندا... در آن نقشي نداشته است.مسئول روابط عمومي تيپ مستقل 110 سلمان فارسي نيروي زميني سپاه اسامي شهداي اين تيپ را به شرح زير اعلام كرد: مهدي كيخا، مصطفي ميري، محمدرضا عطارزاده، عماد كهوري، محمدرضا احمدي، محمدامين ريگي، قاسم پوراكبري، ابوالفضل اميد پناه، علي اردوني، كامبيز صادقي و اسماعيل يزدان‌پور."

LET THEM HAVE IT !

Eleven Terrorists Held; Bomb-Making Factory Seized in IraqBy American Forces Press ServiceMichNews.comJun 12, 2007
WASHINGTON - Coalition forces detained 11 suspected terrorists during operations targeting al Qaeda in Iraq operations in the Baghdad area today. In operations yesterday, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers seized a bomb-making factory, along with another large weapons cache while on patrol in the eastern portion of the Rashid district of the Iraqi capital. Troops from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, and Company A, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, discovered the factory, a complex of small buildings deep in the thick palm groves of East Rashid. The find consisted of one vehicle wired and loaded with explosives, 54 82 mm mortars, 27 155 mm artillery shells, one 500-pound bomb, 64 anti-tank mines, two 200-pound bombs, three 100-pound bombs, 30 130 mm projectiles, 30 hand grenades, 200 artillery boosters, 10 40 mm rounds, 300 5-gallon cans of nitric acid used to make homemade explosives, and 1,500 anti-personnel mines. Troops also found enough wiring and bomb-making material to create more than 300 improvised explosive devices. In a separate cache found near the complex, an additional 125 5-gallon containers of nitric acid were found. Three other vehicles were found wired as car bombs, but did not contain explosives. Elsewhere in Iraq, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers, in cooperation with Iraqi security forces, conducted a raid in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Hateen on June 10, uncovering a cache of bomb-making materials and capturing a terrorist suspect believed to be linked to al Qaeda in Iraq. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, caught the alleged al Qaeda member and found about 500 boxes of toilet bowl cleaner and 20 boxes of circuit breaker covers, which can be used to build improvised chemical weapons. In other Iraq operations, an insurgent detonated himself in a suicide car bomb near the Iraqi highway patrol headquarters east of Tikrit on June 10. Fourteen Iraqi policemen were killed in the attack. In addition, Iraqi army and coalition force soldiers fired at and used attack helicopters to repel insurgents firing from inside the Al Hussiniyah mosque in Old Baquba on June 9.

Forces Capture, Kill Terrorists, Seize Weapons Caches in Iraq

By American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - Coalition and Iraqi forces captured or killed insurgents and confiscated explosives, weapons and other contraband during operations in Iraq over the past few days. Acting on a tip from a concerned citizen, Iraqi national police seized a weapons cache containing hundreds of deadly anti-tank mines during a raid in the Sadr City section of Baghdad yesterday, as other Operation Law and Order operations continue in and around the Iraqi capital and western Iraq. The raid was conducted by Iraqi lawmen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Brigade, 2nd Division of the Iraqi National Police. The Iraqis were backed up by U.S. soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. An Iraqi citizen told the police about the location of the weapons cache, which contained 470 anti-tank mines, according to officials. Another March 24 operation in Iraq involved a coalition air strike conducted southeast of Ar Rutbah that killed three terrorists, officials said, while 12 other suspected terrorists were captured the same day during other operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorists. In the Ar Rutbah engagement, coalition forces attempted to detain four armed terrorists. One terrorist detonated an explosive device, killing himself. The other three attempted to escape in a vehicle. Coalition forces called in an air strike that destroyed the vehicle and killed the three armed men inside. Coalition forces found a suicide vest, grenades and weapons during a search of the scene. No civilians or friendly forces were injured. In Mosul on March 24, coalition forces captured nine suspected terrorists with alleged involvement in foreign fighter facilitation and weapons distribution. Two additional suspects were captured in Baghdad with reported ties to vehicle-borne improvised explosive device manufacturing and another individual suspected of being a courier for al-Qaeda in Iraq was detained east of Balad, all on March 24. "These operations serve as a message to terrorist elements that they will not operate freely or find safe haven in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesperson. Also on March 24, a car bomb detonated near an Iraqi National Police station in Baghdad, killing and wounding an unknown number of Iraqi police and civilians, officials said. Initial reports indicate that the police officers and Iraqi civilians died when the bomb detonated near a police compound in the Jazeera neighborhood of Baghdad's East Rashid district. An undetermined number of police and civilians were also injured. Another vehicle-borne improvised explosive device destroyed the Haswah Husaniyah mosque located south of Baghdad in a suicide attack on March 24, killing four and wounding 39 people. The 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Infantry Division immediately sent military vehicles, Red Crescent ambulances and 14 Iraqi Army soldiers to assist in recovery and assistance operations. Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division patrolling nearby had observed a dump truck moving within 100 feet of the mosque. The vehicle then detonated. In other news, Iraqi police apprehended a suicide truck bomber and his vehicle in Ramadi March 23. The vehicle carried a large quantity of chlorine and explosives, but it failed to detonate. The white cargo truck came to a halt near the entrance to the Jezeera police station, located about 150 meters from a water treatment plant. The police approached the truck for investigation and detained the driver when they discovered that the truck was rigged with explosives and the driver was attempting to detonate the vehicle. The truck contained an unknown number of 55-gallon drums, which were used to camouflage five 1000-gallon barrels filled with chlorine and more than two tons of explosives. The driver is being held for questioning, and all explosives were removed from the truck and destroyed by demolition experts. Additionally, Iraqi soldiers seized a large weapons cache with bomb-making material and detained 31 insurgents during an operation conducted south of Baghdad on March 23, officials said. Iraqi soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 8th Army Division and U.S. troops with the 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division conducted the cordon and search near Diyarah, Iraq. The cache included nine AK-47s, one heavy machine gun, ammunition and magazines, three concussion grenades, one 122 mm artillery round, one 105 mm artillery round, one anti-tank mine, one rocket-propelled grenade, a variety of bomb-making materials, a tractor and five civilian trucks. "Our soldiers felt good about their performance in this operation," said Brig. Gen. Abdul Amir, 2nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division commander. "Much was achieved by this operation today." The suspects are being held for further questioning. In other news, Iraqi Army commandos captured an alleged murderer and kidnapper during a coalition-supported raid conducted March 23 in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, officials said. Credible intelligence indicates that the detained suspect planned, organized and participated in the kidnapping and killing of civilians and was involved in intimidation and extortion rackets, according to officials. He's also suspected of transporting illegal weapons and munitions and taking part in attacks against Iraqi security forces. Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces and coalition soldiers arrested three suspects while seizing two improvised explosive devices, loose explosives and IED-making paraphernalia and other prohibited items during a March 23 raid in Baghdad's Al Mansour district, officials said. In other news, Multi-National Division Baghdad soldiers found a large weapons cache southwest of Radwaniyah, Iraq, March 23, officials said. Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment "Golden Dragons," 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) discovered the cache during a combat patrol in the area. The cache contained thousands of rounds of ammunition and other weapons-related items. The contents of the cache were destroyed. Also, a parked vehicle borne improvised explosive device detonated north of An Najaf, Iraq, March 23, wounding two Iraqi policemen and one civilian, officials reported. The vehicle's driver was detained by the Najaf police and is in custody. Other Iraqi security forces responded to the scene, secured the site and took the injured to a nearby medical facility. The incident is under investigation.

U.S. Destroys Bomb Factory in Iraq , By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:59 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. troops killed five insurgents and destroyed a bomb-making factory Wednesday north of Baghdad, and dozens more were detained after fierce clashes in a Sunni-dominated province west of the capital. Scattered violence killed at least nine people, while a claim by the U.S. military that insurgents used children in a weekend suicide attack raised concerns about new tactics being adopted by insurgents as a security crackdown aimed at stopping sectarian violence enters its sixth week. Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, meanwhile, renewed calls for talks to be opened with insurgents in an attempt to bring peace, but he excluded al-Qaida in Iraq. ''I do believe that there is no way but to talk to everybody,'' he told the British Broadcasting Corp. Apart from al-Qaida, which he said was ''not very much willing in fact to talk to anybody,'' all parties ''should be invited, should be called to sit down around the table to discuss their fears, their reservations.'' Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations on the Joint Staff, said Tuesday that a vehicle used in the attack was waved through a U.S. military checkpoint because two children were visible in the back seat. He said this was the first reported use of children in a suicide car bombing in Baghdad.
''Children in the back seat lowered suspicion, (so) we let it move through, they parked the vehicle, the adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back,'' Barbero told reporters in Washington. ''The brutality and ruthless nature of this enemy hasn't changed.'' Other U.S. officials said later that three Iraqi bystanders were killed in the attack near a marketplace in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, in addition to the two children, and seven people were injured. The officials had no other details, including the estimated ages of the children.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed Barbero's account but said he couldn't provide more details. An Iraqi police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concern, said witnesses had reported seeing two children inside the car before it exploded. He said eight civilians were killed and 28 others wounded in the attack in the predominantly Shiite northern neighborhood of Shaab. The police officer also said three other cases had been registered since last year in which women and children were used in parked car bombings, although they reportedly got out of the cars before the explosions in those cases. The U.S. military has warned that insurgents are proving adaptable and finding new ways to bypass stepped up security measures and kill as many people as possible. A series of bombings using toxic chlorine since Jan. 28 also raised concerns. U.S. forces killed five suspected insurgents, detained three others and used an airstrike to destroy a bomb-making factory that contained large-caliber ammunition and several 50-gallon barrels of explosive material near Taji, an air base 12 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. No American troops or civilians were injured during the operation, it added. A Sadrist lawmaker, Bahaa al-Araji, also said U.S. troops raided his office Wednesday, seizing the memory card from his computer along with a gun and a rifle. The U.S. military had no immediate comment. Al-Araji, one of 30 members of parliament loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, called the raid a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. ''It is a message of provocation sent to the al-Sadr movement,'' he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. ''We will not be drawn into this confrontation.''''We are with the security plan, but we think that the searches should be done by Iraqi forces,'' he added. Al-Sadr, who the military claims has gone to Iran, was said to have ordered his Mahdi Army militia to put away its weapons and not confront U.S. and Iraqi troops during a U.S.-Iraqi security sweep aimed at stopping the sectarian violence in Baghdad. The success in reining in al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which fought fiercely against U.S. forces in 2004, is widely credited with the drop in execution-style killings, random shootings and rocket attacks during the five-week-old operation, but there have been indications that some factions are unhappy with being sidelined. West of Baghdad, U.S.-Iraqi troops backed by American warplanes battled al-Qaida-linked insurgents for more than five hours Tuesday in clashes in Amiriyah, near Fallujah, that left eight killed and five Iraqi policemen wounded, the military said. Iraqi police also detained 45 insurgents, confiscated propaganda material and discovered several weapons caches in house-to-house searches Tuesday in the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, the military said in a separate statement. A roadside bomb planted during the 10-hour operation killed one civilian and wounded five, it said. In other violence Wednesday, according to police: -- A mortar attack struck a residential area in Madain, about 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 10. -- Roadside bombs targeting police patrols in eastern Baghdad, killing three people and wounded two others. -- One civilian was killed and seven were wounded when Iraqi police detonated a truck full of explosives after spotting it parked about near the Finance Ministry building in northern Baghdad. -- The bodies of two policemen, handcuffed and showing signs of torture, were found in Diwaniyah, the site of recent clashes 80 miles south of Baghdad.

New U.S. Commander in Iraq Won’t Rule Out Need for Added Troops

New U.S. Commander in Iraq Won’t Rule Out Need for Added Troops
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ALISSA J. RUBIN
BAGHDAD, March 8 — The new American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned Thursday that American troops here faced a long road ahead and left open the possibility of calling in even more soldiers as he described the difficult task of calming the country. In a broad review of the challenges he faces, General Petraeus suggested the need to be open to working with some of the groups at the center of Iraq’s security struggle. He said the future of the Mahdi Army, the ubiquitous Shiite militia that has fought battles with United States troops, should be left up to Iraqi leaders and noted that many countries had “auxiliary police.” He also suggested that political dialogue with some Sunni militants and Sunni leaders was crucial to finding a solution for problems that military action alone would never be able to fix. General Petraeus repeatedly stressed the long-term nature of the troop increase, but his assertions about the need for open-endedness in the American commitment came as Congressional Democrats in Washington worked toward a fixed date for withdrawal. He said there were no “looming” requests for additional troops and that he had not yet taken a position on an assessment by the second-ranking commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, that the greatly enlarged American force remain until February 2008. But he added, “If you’re going to achieve the kinds of effects that we probably need, it would need to be sustained certainly for some time well beyond the summer.” Military officials in Iraq have indicated that they would need a large American troop presence for at least a year and probably far longer to achieve lasting stability. For now, Congress seems persuaded to give General Petraeus’s strategy a year to yield results, setting the summer of 2008 as a deadline for the return of all troops. General Petraeus’s open-ended strategy appeared to be an effort to avoid a repeat of the pattern that has doomed past American efforts to halt the insurgency. In hot spots including Tal Afar and Diyala, United States soldiers have cracked down on insurgents and then reduced the American presence only to see insurgents retake old ground. In his first extended public comments since taking over one month ago, General Petraeus, 54, cited a handful of early favorable indicators since American and Iraqi forces began sweeping through militia- and insurgent-dominated neighborhoods and building new outposts as part of a Baghdad security plan widely seen as a last-ditch effort to stave off civil war. “While too early to discern significant trends, there have been a few encouraging signs,” General Petraeus said. “Sectarian killings, for example, have been lower in Baghdad over the past several weeks than in the previous month.” He also said that fewer families were being forced out of homes by sectarian gangs and that troops had uncovered significant illegal stashes of bombs and weapons. But he emphasized that successes had come with devastating setbacks. “Schools, health clinics and marketplaces have all been attacked,” he said. “Car bombs have targeted hundreds of innocent Iraqis,” including worshipers in Habbaniya and college students in Baghdad. He also underscored how crucial it would be to prevent the insurgents and death squad members who are believed to have fled Baghdad from exporting violence to nearby areas — like attacks in Hilla on Tuesday that killed more than 100 Shiite religious pilgrims — and to block efforts by insurgents forced to abandon Baghdad from returning. “Anyone who knows about securing Baghdad knows that you must also secure the Baghdad belts, in other words, the areas that surround Baghdad,” he said. One especially violent area, Diyala Province, is “very likely” to get more troops, he said. More American soldiers have been killed already in Diyala this year than in all of 2006 — 29 in 2007 and 20 in 2006, according to icasualties.org. The first two additional brigades coming to Iraq will work in Baghdad; military officials say a large number of troops in the remaining three brigades may have to patrol areas just outside the capital. General Petraeus repeated observations by previous commanders that there is “no military solution” to Iraq’s grave problems. The only long-run success, he said, will come after “reconciling differences with some of those who have felt that the new Iraq did not have a place for them.” According to one government official, some coalition and Iraqi officials have been holding talks with some Sunni insurgent groups who reject the more extremist approaches of groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Similarly, General Petraeus appeared to take a softer line on the Mahdi militia led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, saying that many coalition countries had a “variety of auxiliary police” but that Iraqi leaders must ultimately decide the Mahdi militia’s fate. The challenge, he said, “has been to determine how do you incorporate those who want to serve in a positive way, as neighborhood watches, let’s say, but unarmed in our own communities, but without turning into something much more than that.” With barely a third of the additional American and Iraqi troops on the ground, the new security plan is only beginning to take effect. The troops are in the initial phase of clearing out insurgent bases and taking up residence in neighborhoods. Later phases will involve building trust with the communities so that the Iraqi government can undertake the repairs to infrastructure and the job creation programs that the architects of the troop increase believe are critical to the project’s success. Nonetheless for Iraqis living in Baghdad there already are some perceptible differences. Checkpoints, manned by Iraqi military or police, have sprung up all over the city and security officers appear to be more systematic in determining which cars to pull over and which to let go. In several neighborhoods, most notably Sadr City, the joint American and Iraqi forces have begun to set up operating bases from which they plan to conduct foot patrols and re-establish links with the community to improve intelligence. This is a reversal of the past practice of keeping American troops on large bases except for periodic drives through the neighborhoods or combat missions against suspected militants. Larger neighborhoods, like Sadr City, will eventually have several small, joint bases, though for the moment only a couple are in place. Foot patrols, long viewed as too dangerous for American soldiers to undertake on a regular basis, have begun again even in some of the most violent Sunni neighborhoods as a part of the counterinsurgency effort. The effect on violence in Baghdad is hard to judge, but on a daily basis it appears that the police have found fewer victims of sectarian violence in the city’s empty lots and back alleys, according to reports from the Interior Ministry. General Petraeus also noted that United States troops working with their Iraqi counterparts had tried to improve security at markets, which are especially vulnerable to suicide bombings, and had been sweeping through neighborhoods and arresting people they believed were violent militants or criminals. While military officials point to positive signs emerging from the three-week-old effort, the United States cannot point to any Arab-dominated region in Iraq where it has completely vanquished the indigenous insurgency.

2 GIs Killed In Iraq Attack

Insurgents launched an attack on a U.S. combat post in Iraq Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American troops, the military and residents said. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the military said. The attack came on a day when a string of car bombings and other attacks claimed at least 34 Iraqi lives in Baghdad and elsewhere, including a late afternoon mortar attack in the capital which killed 11, according to police. The assault on the American forces began with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement. It gave no further details beyond the number of dead and wounded. Residents said U.S. forces fought with insurgents after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base. For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving. The military also said Monday that two personnel were killed while conducting combat operations in western Iraq during the weekend. A Marine was killed Saturday and an Army soldier died Sunday while fighting in the Anbar province, the statements said without giving further details. Their names were not immediately made public. Anbar is a main battlefield against Sunni insurgents .

The mortar attack in Baghdad hit just before sunset in the Dora area, which is surrounded by predominantly Sunni neighborhoods. Police and hospital officials put the death toll at 11, but it was unclear whether that number was likely to rise. Earlier, five people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb-rigged belt on a public bus headed for the mostly Shiite area of Karradah, in central Baghdad, police reported. A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Shiite area of Zafraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, wounding two other people, including a civilian, police said. Only 100 yards away, a bomb hidden in an open-air market exploded, killing at least five. In Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of the capital, a car bomb went off among auto repair shops, killing two and wounding two, police said. Mahmoudiya is mostly Shiite with Sunnis living in villages around the community and has long been a flashpoint for sectarian violence.

In other developments:
A Marine who apologized for the kidnap and murder of an Iraqi man by his squad has been sentenced to eight years in military prison. Lance Corporal Robert Pennington was sentenced to 14 years Saturday, but a military judge suspended six years of the sentence under terms of a pretrial agreement. Pennington also was reduced in rank and given a dishonorable discharge during sentencing at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in California. In Buhriz, a Sunni-dominated town about 35 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers kicked in doors and scoured homes, but most dwellings were eerily empty. Soldiers confiscated new Iraqi army uniforms in a building not known to house troops, along with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and AK-47 magazines. There has been growing suspicion that militants have posed as Iraqi soldiers in some attacks and ambushes. The scattered blasts, which occurred during the morning rush hour, occurred one day after a massive car bomb attack in an outdoor market. Police said at least 63 people died in the attack in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad. Scores were injured as extremists sent a bloody calling card to officials boasting that militant factions were on the run. Nearly 130 people were injured. Another person was killed in a car bombing Sunday in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City. Just a few hours before the weekend blasts, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar led reporters on a tour of the neighborhood near the marketplace and promised to "chase the terrorists out of Baghdad." On Saturday, the Iraqi spokesman for the plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, said violence had plummeted 80 percent in the capital. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the bombing as a desperate act by "terrorists" and "criminals" who sense they are being squeezed. "These crimes confirm the defeat of these perpetrators and their failure in confronting our armed forces, which are determined to cleanse the dens of terrorism," al-Maliki said in a statement. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the bombings underscore the "increasing desperation felt by criminals" and would only serve to "galvanize Iraqi forces and their coalition partners." Sunday was by far the deadliest day since the security sweeps began last week. On Thursday, a string of car bombs killed seven civilians on the first full day of the house-to-house searches for weapons and suspected militants. The U.S.-led teams have faced limited direct defiance as they set up checkpoints and comb neighborhoods. But that could change as they move into more volatile sections. The next could be Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. soldiers pressed closer to Sadr City and the reception changed noticeably. In previous days, Shiite families opened their doors to welcome the troops — feeling that the American presence would be a buffer against feared attacks from Sunni militia. On Sunday, in areas closer to Sadr City, parents slapped away the candy and lollipops given by American soldiers. "The Baghdad security plan is very important to push Iraq ahead," said Haider al-Obeidi, a parliament member from the Dawa party of the prime minister al-Maliki. Meanwhile, borders with Iran and Syria — shut for three days as the plan got under way — reopened Sunday. But new and strict rules will apply. Moussawi was quoted in the Azzaman newspaper as saying the crossing points to the two nations would be open for only several hours a day and under "intense observation." The United States and allies claim Iraqi militants receive aid and supplies from Iran, including parts for lethal roadside bombs targeting U.S. forces. Iran denies any role in trafficking weapons.